ROCKFORD — Since state legislators last met in March at Rock Valley College to talk about the heroin crisis, Winnebago County Sheriff’s police have started administering overdose antidotes, called naloxone or Narcan.

And Hope Over Addiction, a year-old community group formed by parents, began handing out the antidote to those whose family members and friends are addicted to heroin in an effort to save their loved ones lives. The group will host its second International Overdose Awareness Day Memorial Event on Aug. 30 at the YMCA Log Lodge, Rockford.

Yet the half dozen legislators who gathered Monday at RVC heard there is much work to do here to better control use of the illegal drug that has claimed the lives of 18 people so far this year and 51 last year in Winnebago County.

Among the questions and testimony presented Monday before about 40 attendees to the Illinois House Task Force on Heroin:

n Federal agents are better at seizing the houses of drug dealers than local police, who “get an awful lot of money” from seizing vehicles, said Dominic Iasparro, deputy chief of the sheriff’s department. Some of the proceeds from seizures helped pay for initial stocking of Narcan for police, he said.

n It’s frustrating for paramedics to use Narcan to save the lives of those who have overdosed on heroin, only to have the drug user check out of a hospital 15 minutes later and wind up back in an ambulance three hours after that when they’ve overdosed again. That’s what Derek Bergsten, chief of the Rockford Fire Department, said.

So far this year, paramedics have handled 229 overdoses, four of five from heroin, he said. Bergsten told legislators that more money should be spent on drug treatment and education to help reduce overdoses.

Bonnie Falzone-Capriola, whose son, Barry Falzone, died in 2011 after his fourth overdose, suggested paramedics and hospitals give pamphlets to those who have overdosed and their family and friends explaining the state’s Good Samaritan Law. The law can help protect those who report an overdose to emergency departments from legal prosecution if they possess a small amount of drugs.

Bergsten said that several years ago, 80 percent of the overdose calls the department handled were in homes. Today, it’s half, he said. More people are overdosing in cars and restaurant or gas station bathrooms, often because they can’t wait to get their fix. Iasparro said parking lots across Rockford are main venues where heroin sellers and buyers meet.

Most of those who die from heroin overdoses are white men in their 20s and 30s.

n Kim Fornero of the Illinois Department of Human Services suggested that there should be better collection systems for expired and unused drugs. Often, those who are addicted to heroin start by taking pain killers, some of which they find in home medicine chests.

Page 2 of 2 - She also suggested that the state have oversight of pain management clinics that prescribe opiates.

Dr. Michael Wahl of the Illinois Poison Center testified that 80 percent of heroin users got their start on prescription medicines. An Oxycontin pain pill can cost $50 to $60, he said, versus $5 for a hit of heroin.

Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park, said the Young Adults Heroin Task Force that held a hearing in winter at RVC likely will suggest that Robert Crown Centers for Health Education will be tapped to target drug education for students.

Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, chairman of the task force that met here Monday, said legislators will consider the information from this and other hearings to work into legislation this fall or next spring.